Well I really planned to do a daily blog of the trip, but given how much I was doing during the day, and usually not getting back to the hotel until 8 or 9 at night, I didn’t have time to sit and write up the day’s activities. I also was bone tired as I was averaging a good 6-8 miles of walking every day, so about all I could do was dowload the days pictures onto my laptop. I do regret not being able to do more writeups, in a way, but I realized it’s better to spend the time actually experiencing something. I’ll have a whole lot of time to write entries once I’m done, but they won’t have the immediacy of near “real-time” entries.
For anyone who was checking in to see what was new, I apologize for not updating.
After walking around a whole lot Wednesday (about 7 miles total), Thursday was not a “wake up at 5 AM” day. I barely woke up when the alarm went off at 7:30, after having fallen asleep Wednesday night about 9:30, so I decided to put the “Do not disturb” sign out and start into working on yesterday’s blog post and sorting through the day’s photos. I made it pretty far, but as the morning wore on I discovered that I could either blog about my experiences, or I could actually go out and HAVE experiences to blog about!
So, I set out to find more places that should have cherry trees in bloom. According to promotional literature, the Sumida Park area near Asakusa was supposed to have a bunch of famous trees planted by one of the shoguns a long time ago, so I decided to set off for there. Fortunately it was a relatively straight shot from my hotel, so at the end of the Asakusa Line, I came out into Asakusa proper, which is just across the Sumidagawa River from the newest “big thing”, Tokyo Sky Tree. Sky Tree is the tallest structure in Japan, and is one of the tallest structures in the world (tallest non-office tower, I think). I plan to go there on this trip, and take pictures from the observation decks, over 1000 feet up. I will find out if alcohol defeats acrophobia, or, how much sake will it take to get me to stand on the “glass floor”.
I soon discovered from the map that Sumida Park actually sits on both sides of the Sumidagawa, so I crossed over one bridge to the east shore, and took in the views from that side. The part on that side had one wide “park” area, which was wide open, but the main part is a narrow strip right along the river, where people gathered in groups for “hanami”, or “cherry blossom watching.” This is basically an excuse for companies to let their employees gather in groups to drink, eat, drink, socialize, drink, and build camaraderie with their fellow workers, while sitting on tarps (traditionally blue) under the cherry trees. And drink. Other groups are made up of old friends, college students (drinking age is 20), and families.
That day there were also continuing “matsuri” or festivals along the banks, where you could buy grilled chicken on a stick, or various other kinds of snack foods, along with beer. I forgot to mention that the headquarters of Asahi Beer Ltd. is right there near the Sumida Park, so they were kind enough to provide lots of beer for sale. Near one of the booths I struck up a conversation with two of the people standing around, a man and his wife. I say “struck up a conversation” but I really mean “exercised my minimal Japanese while actually understanding and being understood about 30% of the time”. It was fun, and we three had a good time for a few minutes, while I rested for a bit before moving on.
I crossed the “Sumida Friendship Bridge” and continued on back down the Park towards Asakusa. I got to see some of the tour boats and “dinner boats” that cruise up and down the Sumidagawa, which are very interesting and which go back a couple hundred years into Tokyo history (not the current boats, obviously, but the idea of them). Once I got back to the Asakusa area, I stopped to eat a huge bowl of soba noodles and a “katsudon”, which is a bowl of rice topped with a fried, breaded pork cutlet. The noodles came in a huge bowl at least 8 inches across and 3 deep, with miso broth. The katsudon was almost as big, so between them the meal was probably about 2 pounds of food, all for 720Â¥, which is about $7. The secret to saving money in Japan is to eat where the locals eat, not where the tourists eat! There were no tourists there, just middle-aged locals who came in for a quick meal.
After eating I walked further down to the Sensoji Temple area of Asakusa, but that’s going to be the next blog post.
So, today opened bright and early for me (well, early anyway) as I woke up at about 5 AM again, so after fitfully trying to get back to sleep I gave up and got up. I hadn’t planned anything specific, but as I was checking web cams around the area of Mt. Fuji, I saw that there were crystal clear views of the mountain, so I decided to try to take a highway bus out to a town called Oshino. I made it to the bus terminal in Shinjuku, and found out that you need to book ahead, as all the morning buses were booked for the next few days. The afternoon buses ran after 2 PM, which since it takes 2 hours to get to Oshino, I abandoned that plan since I couldn’t get back until the next day. I decided to try for Plan B, go to a high spot in Tokyo and look for Fuji from whatever observation deck I could find. I discovered I was within walking distance of the Tokyo Metropolitan Building, which has observation decks on the 45th floor of each tower, so I thought this was my chance. Wrong. Turns out it was clear air near Mount Fuji, but in Tokyo there was major humidity which caused major haze, thick enough to hide Mt. Fuji and most of Tokyo. My luck continues on the Fuji viewing front.
View from the observation deck
On a positive note, there was an exhibition on the observation floor, where each of the prefectures in Japan were displaying and selling products specific to those prefectures. I looked each display over and decided to buy something from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures, since they were hardest-hit by the earthquake and tsunami five years ago. Yes, I bought food from Fukushima prefecture, and no I don’t expect to glow in the dark as a result.
After a light snack of an apple strudel-like thing at the observation deck cafe, I set out to go back to the hotel to drop off my purchases. On my way out, I stopped at the Tourist Information Office on the first floor, and picked up some tourist brochures. Sadly, I don’t think Tokyo’s going to be ready to handle a bunch of foreigners when they come for the Olympics in 5 years, since probably about 95% of the “tourist information” brochures were in Japanese only. Not a very welcoming sign.
Blossoms on the Meguro River
When I got to the hotel, the cleaning crew was still working on my room, so I went back out to the 7-Eleven across the street, bought a small salad with tuna, a sliced hard-boiled egg, lettuce, carrots, and corn, and ate lunch at a small city park near the hotel. I finished a bit after the cleaning crew, so I was able to drop my stuff off, and drop myself in front of the laptop to scope out some cherry blossom sites. I had read about the Meguro river, which is lined with cherry trees on both sides, and which has a loooong street festival with food vendors of nearly every kind. The trees are lit at night and there are lanterns ever couple of feet, so folks can enjoy the view until late. So, since the Naka-Meguro station is at the end of the subway line that runs by the hotel, I figured I’d try it and see, at least I wouldn’t have to worry about being able to see it all.
Riverside meal
I got there just before sunset, and as I was wandering around I was amused by one of the vendors who was selling a square slice of pizza, and so I had to buy a small pizza and beer from them. Corona beer and Japanese pizza, while looking at cherry blossoms, the life of a modern world traveler!
At any rate, that was the day, I wandered around the area until well after sunset, and got some nice pictures of the blossoms lit from below! Enjoy!
So, I set out to find more places that should have cherry trees in bloom. According to promotional literature, the Sumida Park area near Asakusa was supposed to have a bunch of famous trees planted by one of the shoguns a long time ago, so I decided to set off for there. Fortunately it was a relatively straight shot from my hotel, so at the end of the Asakusa Line, I came out into Asakusa proper, which is just across the Sumidagawa River from the newest “big thing”, Tokyo Sky Tree. Sky Tree is the tallest structure in Japan, and is one of the tallest structures in the world (tallest non-office tower, I think). I plan to go there on this trip, and take pictures from the observation decks, over 1000 feet up. I will find out if alcohol defeats acrophobia, or, how much sake will it take to get me to stand on the “glass floor”.
 
I crossed the “Sumida Friendship Bridge” and continued on back down the Park towards Asakusa. I got to see some of the tour boats and “dinner boats” that cruise up and down the Sumidagawa, which are very interesting and which go back a couple hundred years into Tokyo history (not the current boats, obviously, but the idea of them). Once I got back to the Asakusa area, I stopped to eat a huge bowl of soba noodles and a “katsudon”, which is a bowl of rice topped with a fried, breaded pork cutlet. The noodles came in a huge bowl at least 8 inches across and 3 deep, with miso broth. The katsudon was almost as big, so between them the meal was probably about 2 pounds of food, all for 720Â¥, which is about $7. The secret to saving money in Japan is to eat where the locals eat, not where the tourists eat! There were no tourists there, just middle-aged locals who came in for a quick meal.
